


Gone, But Never Forgotten

by sunflower_swan



Series: DA Discord Flash Fics [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fred Weasley Dies, Friendship, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Nature, Post-Battle of Hogwarts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-14 13:15:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28671363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunflower_swan/pseuds/sunflower_swan
Summary: It’s a few days after the Battle of Hogwarts, Fred is gone, and Luna helps Ginny through her grief.
Relationships: Luna Lovegood & Ginny Weasley
Series: DA Discord Flash Fics [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2162157
Comments: 37
Kudos: 24
Collections: Magic Begins From Within - A Dumbledore's Armada Flash Fest Challenge





	Gone, But Never Forgotten

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [Magic_Begins_From_Within](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Magic_Begins_From_Within) collection. 



> Written for Dumbledore’s Armada Flash Fest Challenge: Magic Begins From Within.  
> Prompt: spend time outdoors
> 
> Thank you to [Ravendor_Neera](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ravendor_Neera/works) for all of your love and encouragement in writing this!

His mischievous grin was in the unhindered sunshine.

His infectious laughter was in the trickle of the stream.

His gallant voice whispered in the breeze-rustled trees.

Ginny released Luna’s hand and sank to her knees in the soft grass. Her vision blurred. She blinked and felt hot tears slide down her cheeks. Some landed with a quiet splash on her arms, while others tasted salty on her parted lips.

Fred was everywhere and in everything. Yet, Ginny knew he was also nowhere. He was gone and would never laugh with her, cry with her, hug her… ever again. This realisation sent a fresh stab to her chest.

She vaguely sensed Luna kneeling beside her. A gentle hand ran from her head to the small of her back. From a distance, she heard Luna say her name.

“Ginny… come back,” the dim voice pleaded. “Look at me.”

Inhaling a shaky gasp, Ginny willed her eyes to open. She struggled to focus on her friend’s sympathetic face.

Luna’s eyebrows pulled down in concentration and her silver-blue eyes were tight in concern. “Hello, again,” she said with a soothing smile.

Ginny choked on a laugh at Luna’s genial straight-forwardness. The almost-grin felt strange and foreign to her cheeks.

Luna lifted her hand towards Ginny’s and squeezed it once. “Tell me?”

“Wh--” Ginny hiccupped. “--What?”

“Tell me a story about Fred?”

Rubbing her achy and swollen eyes with the knuckles of her free hand, she fought through the mental fog clouding her mind. She’d thought of nothing else for days. It shouldn’t be this hard to come up with a story to share with Luna.

“Um…” she stammered through her tears, “One time when I was about nine or ten…”

~~~~~

The snow fell deep overnight and into the morning. Around mid-day, it turned to a steady freezing rain. Though the precipitation stopped shortly after nightfall, the temperature dipped low again and in the morning everything became coated in a fine sheen of ice.

Arthur slipped on the front step, bruising his backside, and spent the rest of the day in his favourite armchair by the fire. It did not take long before he was shooing the kids out the door with a, “Be careful! Have fun! Take care of your sister!”

Percy, Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny waddled, pulling their sleds to the nearest hill. The hill was long and steep; great for sledding apart from a barbed-wire fence near the bottom, which meant they had to roll out of the sled before they reached it. A favourite game of the boys was to see who was brave enough to sled the furthest.

Ginny sat at the top of the hill, watching her brothers, trepidation building inside her. She rubbed her mittened hand over the glossy, hard ground.

 _To slide down this hill today would be tantamount to suicide_ , she thought to herself.

But if her brothers could do it, so could she!

“Come on, Ginny!” they shouted from the bottom of the hill.

She positioned her sled and pushed away the nagging voice in her head, which sounded like her mother’s, saying, _maybe this is a bad idea_. Then she was off!

Her brothers cheered her on.

The crisp air bit at her nose and lungs.

The sled was gaining speed faster than ever before.

The sharp, barbed-wire fence was getting closer.

Her brothers were shouting at her to stop but she didn’t know how.

With a shriek, she ducked forward and sailed under the fence. She heard the wire rip the back of her parka.

When she looked up again, her sled had stopped on the edge of the creek at the bottom of the hill, some thirty meters below the fence. Ron, Percy, and George were doubled over, their laughter carried on the thin, dry air. Fred, on the other hand, was carefully making his way under the fence and down to where Ginny was stuck.

~~~~~

“I was so light, my feet couldn’t break through the ice to get traction to walk back up the hill. But Fred rescued me and fixed my parka so Mom wouldn’t be mad,” she finished her tale.

Her tears had dried during the telling. She took a deep, cleansing breath and scooted closer to Luna.

Wrapping her arms around Ginny, Luna said, “I bet you have lots of great stories like that.”

Nodding her head against Luna’s shoulder, Ginny allowed the warmth of the embrace to act as a soothing balm on her aching heart and mind.

“As long as you hold onto and share those memories, then Fred will never truly be gone. The dead don’t leave us as long as we love and remember them.”

The sun beaming down on them in their little pastoral hideaway gave Ginny a bones-deep, sleepy feeling. She lay down in the grass next to Luna and breathed in the sweet scent of lavender and earth. Her chest felt looser than before and her breathing seemed a bit easier.

Lying down next to her, Luna stroked Ginny’s hair and said, “I’ll stay awake if you want to sleep.”

Sleep did sound good; it had eluded her for a few days. Ginny nodded and closed her eyes. Soon, the weightlessness that precedes sleep overtook her, and her body and mind began to drift.

She dreamt a silly dream. Ron was doing something dumb and she was making fun of him. Suddenly, the scene changed.

Fred leaned against the rock fence in the garden at the Burrow, hands in his pockets and legs crossed at the ankles. “Hey, sis.” He smirked.

Ginny couldn’t believe it! She floated rather than walked toward Fred until their arms wrapped around each other in a full-body hug. “Good-bye,” she whispered.

He kissed the top of her head and said, “Don’t worry.”

The dream faded away to the warmth of the sun on her face, the sound of the stream and the rustling trees in her ears, and happy memories of Fred to cherish always. She knew everything would work out and be ok.

**Author's Note:**

> On NYE, my Grandpa Roy passed away from complications related to Covid, and I dedicate this short story to his memory. Writing this fic helped me work through part of my grieving process. The flashback sledding story and the dream are both based on actual, real things that happened.
> 
> Love you, Grandpa. <3


End file.
